Nissan LEAF may spawn all-electric crossover

By
Josée Paquet ,
2015-07-28

One report from overseas has Nissan developing a new electric crossover based on the second-generation LEAF, which is scheduled for 2016 or 2017.

“There could be more than one LEAF,” Nissan executive vice president Trevor Mann told Autocar. “We’ve always said it needn’t be one car.”

However, he didn’t say exactly when a LEAF-based crossover, or any other related model, would be ready to hit the market.

Launching an electric crossover would make perfect sense given the seemingly exponential growth of this body style and the lack of a true zero-emission alternative in the segment.

Of course, range is the biggest issue for customers, but Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has previously confirmed that the new LEAF will offer close to 400 kilometres – more than double the current range of 160 kilometres.

According to World Car Fans, the aforementioned crossover will likely be a bit larger and heavier, but Nissan will no doubt compensate the added weight by installing more batteries, so expect the range to land in the same ballpark.

In case you forgot, Nissan already sells another electric vehicle beyond the LEAF, namely the e-NV200, and has announced a hybrid version of the popular Rogue.

“We’ve got the NV200 electric, too, now, but obviously we’re still studying other opportunities,” Mann added. “What we’ve got to do is to make sure the market is right. We want to make sure that when we do the next one or we expand the line-up, we’re really taking the market intelligence that we’re gathering and using it. With our customer base, we have an enormous amount of feedback that we can recycle into what we do in the future.”